Names of hydroids (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) established by Charles McLean Fraser (1872 - 1946), excluding those from Allan Hancock Expeditions
Author
Calder, Dale R.
Author
Choong, Henry H. C.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-10-02
4487
1
1
83
journal article
29136
10.11646/zootaxa.4487.1.1
939f52d6-d58b-4a22-8aec-dd5c6a591067
1175-5326
1456161
524B23B9-8EAA-4BD6-8937-A1B8F1C057B9
Aglaophenia raridentata
Fraser, 1944a
Aglaophenia apocarpa
Αllman, 1877: 41, pl. 24, figs. 5–9.
Aglaophenia elegans
Nutting, 1900
: 94
, pl. 19, figs. 3, 4 [invalid junior primary homonym of
Aglaophenia elegans
Lamouroux, 1816
].
Aglaophenia raridentata
Fraser, 1944a
: 387
, pl. 83, figs. 376a, b [replacement name for
Aglaophenia elegans
Nutting, 1900
, not
Aglaophenia elegans
Lamouroux, 1816
].
Syntypes
.
USNM 18645:
USA
,
Florida
, Straits of
Florida
,
Florida
Keys,
8 miles
(
13 km
) off American Shoal Light, State University of
Iowa
Bahamas
Expedition of 1893, Sta.
62, 128–
146 m
,
29 June 1893
; two slides.
USNM 69685:
USA
,
Florida
, Straits of
Florida
,
Florida
Keys,
8 miles
(
13 km
) off American Shoal Light, State University of
Iowa
Bahamas
Expedition of 1893, Sta.
62, 128–
146 m
,
29 June 1893
; ethanol.
Type
locality.
USA
,
Florida
: off
Sand Key
, 70–80 fm (
128–146 m
) (
Nutting 1900
).
Current status.
Invalid.
Remarks.
The binomen
Aglaophenia raridentata
was proposed by
Fraser (1944a)
as a new replacement name for
Aglaophenia elegans
Nutting, 1900
(not
Aglaophenia elegans
Lamouroux, 1816
). The two therefore have the same
type
locality and the same name-bearing
type
material (ICZN Arts. 67.8, 72.7).
A degree of uncertainty exists about specimens that qualify as name-bearing
types
of new species described by
Nutting (1900)
, including
Aglaophenia elegans
. A procedure was established by him whereby “…three series of slides [were prepared] from the same
type
specimen… These series were then distributed to the
United States
National Museum, the Museum of the State University of
Iowa
, and the private collection of the author” (
Nutting 1900: 58
). In Nutting’s monograph, catalogue numbers were provided for slides at the “USNM” (NMNH) and at the university museum at
Iowa
(designated as “
Type
slides”), but not for the “
type
specimen” from which the slides were made, nor for slides in the Nutting Collection. Unless other evidence is found, the original “
type
specimen” cannot clearly be identified as such. The NMNH online database lists as
types
only those specimens on numbered slides.
In his account of
Aglaophenia elegans
,
Nutting (1900)
explicitly assigned
type
status to material on slides at the NMNH (USNM 18645), at the Museum of the State University of
Iowa
(
No
. 15354), and in his personal collection (unnumbered). The latter two collections are likely to have been sent to the NMNH in a transfer of collections from
Iowa
after Nutting’s death (
Calder 2004: 23
). It is unclear whether those slides were combined to form part of the
syntype
material listed above. Meanwhile, material of the species in ethanol at the NMNH (USNM 69685) is part of the same collection as the
syntype
slides, but it is not classified in the online database as part of the
type
series. It is regarded here as part of the
syntype
series.
Aglaophenia elegans
and its objective synonym
A. raridentata
are subjective junior synonyms of
A. apocarpa
Allman, 1877
, a hydroid described from the same area (Sand Key) in the Straits of
Florida
(
Bedot 1921
;
Bogle 1975
;
Cairns
et al
. 2002
). As for the binomen
A. apocarpa
, confusion persists over whether it or
A. lophocarpa
Allman, 1877
has precedence when the two are considered synonyms. As First Reviser (ICZN Art. 24.2),
Bedot (1921)
assigned precedence to the name
A. apocarpa
(see
Calder 1997
: 54).